Sunday, April 3, 2011

Carl's Slide

Here's a little slide history for you. Robin Shelley worked for The Ledger (Laytonville) at the time. She was kind enough to send me this note and the enclosed photo’s. The slide is obviously "Carl's Slide". Located about ten miles north of Leggett a few yards north of Carl's Coffee Shop, and a few yards south of "Howling Wolf Lodge"


Hi, Ernie,
Here are two pictures from a slide that occurred north of Leggett sometime in late 1970s/early 1980s. Merle Askew from The Ledger & my husband flew up with a guy named Wayne from L'ville to take pictures. I don't remember the location but I'm sure you do. I know it's not Confusion Hill - ha!
Hope all is well with you & yours,
Robin

When the slide came in, they say that it came in in one big fell-swoop. It originally went clear across the river, and they were evacuating downstream. The river backed way up, but it slowly washed its way back through, and a large percentage of the slide washed down the river with the water that cut through it. The brush and trees on the far bank from the slide were removed from the water spilling over and cutting it's way down the bank. 

The dozer on the right side of the photo was building a road to the top of the slide to start peeling the bank clean. As you can see when you drive by today, the dirt and rocks are removed clean down to bedrock.

THANKS ROBIN! (Yes, I'm shouting!)

DEAN CREEK SLIDE TODAY


Photo by Lindsey Locke. Photo of the Dean Creek Slide today.
at

15 comments:

  1. BenApril 3, 2011 at 8:12 PM

    Here's my Carl's Slide story... We had gone to Mendocino for the Music Festival and came back to find a phone company guy at the 101 junction telling us about the slide. We headed for the Bell Springs Road and were stopped by a Hiway Patrol guy who wouldn't listen to our pleas. Then I remembered seeing vehicles going up the USAL Road, so we headed back and started out that way. The road was so bad in spots that I had to get out and toss branches in the ditches to get thru. We were driving a tough Dodge wagon jacked up 2 inches for back roads. As we got closer to Whale Gulch after a wild ride, we found a Chevrolet Corvette half off the road next to a slide. I was half crazed by the idea of going back but in a few minutes five or six cars arrived and we simply picked up the Corvette and put him back on the road. Dinner at the Shelter Cove Grotto. It had taken us six hours.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ernie BranscombApril 3, 2011 at 8:26 PM

    Ben
    You ran into the two biggest pains in the ass to a back-road country boy. Cops and outsiders.

    I will say cops are darn fine people when you need one...

    ReplyDelete
  3. olmanriverApril 3, 2011 at 9:13 PM

    Wow! Thanks Ernie and Robin... great photos...and story, Ben.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousApril 4, 2011 at 4:01 AM

    Look at all that gold in the first picture.

    Oregon

    ReplyDelete
  5. Fred MangelsApril 4, 2011 at 6:26 AM

    Wow. I don't remember seeing that picture but I remember the slide.

    I was in the National Guard at the time: A Company, 579th Engineer Battalion, based in Eureka. We had to go to Camp Roberts for annual training while that slide was blocking the road. Instead of our usual convoy down 101, we had to divert and head up 299, then down I5. It was a long drive and a real pain in the ass, especially in military 5 ton dump trucks.

    ReplyDelete
  6. olmanriverApril 4, 2011 at 9:20 AM

    It was an El Nino year in 1982. It took a month to repair Carl's slide that winter.
    Who did the work Ernie?

    ReplyDelete
  7. skippyApril 4, 2011 at 12:00 PM

    Great pictures, impressive slide, Ernie. Wasn't that around the corner from what we used to call 'Dead Man's Curve?' Always the exciting, scary, and 'welcome home' landmark as a kid. You had to cautiously peer ahead to see if a big truck was coming because you and them couldn't do it at the same time, not to mention some of the impressive rocks and overhangs jutting outward.

    Carl's... the resting place for coffee and pie, not a whole lot of anything else found around. Help me out, was it a 'round the clock kind of place? I always remember it being open. Sad to see it go. Those were the good days.

    A note for readers, if they still have the lights shining up on that slide area or nearby during the summer nights (and the chain link net on the hillside?) you can (briefly) see the bats flying by and grabbing the insects around the lights. But remember to keep that other eye on the road.

    Nice picture and memories from the archives, Ernie.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Ernie BranscombApril 4, 2011 at 12:50 PM

    Skippy
    The slide is about 1 mile north of Bell Glen.

    ReplyDelete
  9. concerned tax payerApril 4, 2011 at 1:09 PM

    i have had several calls today about highway 101 closing at 6:00 pm tonight, monday. tell your friends to call cal trans, highway patrol, supervisors and tell them there is no way the road needs to close. there is k rail in place. there are spotters on site if the slide were to move again in such a matter to be of concern for the traffic. the sun and wind are drying the mud slide as we speak. people who are working in areas both north and south that would be impacted by closing the road needlessly. make your calls. it is important to let them know we are watching.

    ReplyDelete
  10. KymApril 5, 2011 at 12:33 AM

    I remember my dad working on that slide but he has warned me not to be talking about him on the interwebs so my fingers are sealed but I can tell some great bulshistory if we happen to meet in person...

    ReplyDelete
  11. Robin ShelleyApril 5, 2011 at 6:43 PM

    You're welcome, Ernie.
    (I heard you all the way up here!)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Robin ShelleyApril 5, 2011 at 6:44 PM

    Oh! And thank YOU for clarifying for me the location of the (older) slide.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Robin ShelleyApril 8, 2011 at 7:04 PM

    Kym, I wish I knew you.

    ReplyDelete
  14. AnonymousSeptember 21, 2012 at 5:15 PM

    Ernie wondering if you could help me out with some information about Howling Wolf Lodge. There is a bit of an urban legend that they had a fire in 81 or 82 and their elephant named Neena died in that fire. DO you have any recollection of this? There si no record of it anywhere on the net it seems. Im looking for at least somewhere I can request any sort of document that verifies this fire happened. thanks ;) Elle

    ReplyDelete
  15. DanKoehlOctober 14, 2012 at 9:19 AM

    I also heard about this rumor, can it be confirmed? Eventually a fire in barn, where an elephant died. Eventually someone from the fire department was involved.

    ReplyDelete